A Jamaican Childhood: A Bad Man and Other StoriesA Jamaican Childhood Beverly Ramsay captures the reader's interest with a wide variety of stories which document an idyllic life growing up in Jamaica in the 1950's and early 1960's before she leaves to join her parents in England. This first collection of stories, brimming with humour, reveal a cornucopia of experiences and are full of fantastic descriptions of the environment, the people, places and traditions of a very vibrant island.Each story stands as a testament to how seeminly simple occurences and events serve to shape the mind of a growing and inquisitive child. In 'The Worldlians' , one of five stories, the imagination takes over from adult explanations, while in 'School's Out' the young audience witnesses the desperation of a child pitting their strength against the unrelenting power of the institution, and in the nail-biting story 'A Bad Man' , entertaining slabs of the Jamaican dialect serve to reveal not just a prolonged manhunt but also the culture and mores of a rich and vibrant island whose very apt motto is 'Out of Many, One People'. |